AGENCIA DE LA NIÑEZ EN LA BÚSQUEDA DE SOBERANÍA ALIMENTARIA, EL CASO DE SAN JERÓNIMO AMANALCO

Abstract

Children are vulnerable to food problems, but they have less choice, participation and information than adults in such matters. Social Science discussions that approach the understanding and social inclusion of children are minimal, and there are limited social spaces and tools provided to them to participate in various alternatives to problems such as control of the food industry and the disconnection between production and consumption. The action research was carried out under an ethnographic approach, with the participation of 23 children from San Jeronimo Amanalco, Texcoco, State of Mexico. The objective was to understand the children’s agency with respect to their food experiences, knowledge and practices in a rural-urban space, through the exchange of knowledge and constructive-productive actions. There are physical conditions, knowledge and attitude in children to collaborate in food sovereignty processes, but it is necessary to give them conducive social conditions. Their agency supports the transmission of the peasant culture that persists in their grandparents and can be renewed by this new generation that maintains ties with the land. Children are able to recognize natural wealth as the basis of the productive phase for a healthy diet, and this productive process means a bond of identity with their predecessors, their physical environment and their community